This year we’re again honored to welcome a great list of speakers. Dr. Susan Selner-Wright will talk about John Paul II’s “theology of the body.” Dr. Marilyn Coors will discuss stem cell research from a Catholic perspective. Ms. Jennifer Kraska, Esq., of the Colorado Catholic Conference will speak on local and national sanctity of life issues. And anchoring the day in an especially powerful way will be our keynote speaker, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan. Archbishop Naumann will share his thoughts on “America at the crossroads: a life and death choice.”

Archbishop Naumann is a leader among America’s bishops. He offers clear and compelling guidance on how to live our Catholic faith in the public square; how to choose between imperfect public policy alternatives; and how to apply the right principles and priorities when forming our consciences in public moral issues. For anyone interested in these issues —and we all should be — his thoughts will be very valuable.

The historian Paul Johnson, a Catholic, once said that America was “born Protestant.” He didn’t mean to suggest that America ever was, or ever should be, a formally Christian nation. Rather he meant that from its founding, “American society embraced the principles of voluntarism and tolerance in [religious] faith in a spirit not of secularism, but of piety.” For Johnson, the United States was never imagined as “a secular state; it might more accurately be described as a moral and ethical society without a state religion.”

Our national soul was expressed best in our founding document. In its structure, the Declaration of Independence has a clear religious resonance. It refers several times to a Creator or Supreme Being. But more importantly, natural law principles shape the whole text. These principles have their roots in Christian medieval thought, which itself drew on the Hebrew tradition, classical Greek thought and Roman jurists.

Natural law is not a “sectarian” idea. It is much larger and older than that. It exists in every society. Natural law teaches that all creation has a “nature,” an inherent order and purpose. By using their reason, men and women can know what conforms to their human nature and is therefore good. This knowledge doesn’t require a theology or law degree; we all instinctively sense it. Murder, lying, cheating, stealing, exploiting the poor, abusing the weak and elderly — these things are universally seen as evil whether a person is Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Taoist or agnostic, because they violate a natural moral law written into the human heart.

Knowing this is important. Here’s why. When Catholics oppose abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia and related issues, we do so not because of some special Catholic religious doctrine, or simply because the Church says so. Rather, the Church teaches abortion is wrong because it already is. Abortion violates the natural law by abusing the inherent human rights of the unborn child. The injustice of genocide, oppressing the poor and killing unborn children is not a matter of religious doctrine. It’s a matter of natural law. And when Catholics defend the unborn, they are not “imposing their religious beliefs” on society, but upholding an even more fundamental principle of justice that America itself is founded on.

As we prepare for another year of public debate, national elections and difficult political choices in 2008, we need to begin now to reflect on what it really means to be “Catholic” and what that implies for our decision-making as citizens. There’s no better place to start than the Gospel of Life Conference on Oct. 20. I’ll be there, and I hope to see you, as well.